Razar

by Starr Huntress

  Splashing proved not to be enough, so I dove across the pool, tackling him and digging my fingers along the sides of his magnificent chest. He thrashed like an animal under my tickling, and soon it seemed like there would be more water on the tiles around us than in the pool.

  Having him helplessly at my mercy was delicious. All that brawn and composure reduced to spasming putty under my hands. It made me long for our other pastimes.

  When we finally caught our breath, I was lying across his chest, which still panted a bit from his giggles. We had been soaking for the better part of an hour, and I wished we could stay there until morning. Thank heaven this pool was tucked so deep in the casino—nobody could have heard us. But then, we’d picked it for the seclusion.

  “How did you know that story?” I asked.

  “Hmm?”

  “Snow White. The seven dwarves. How did you ever know that? I can’t imagine it’s part of your culture.”

  “It isn’t,” he said, tracing lazy fingers up and down my spine. “I may have been reading up on you humans in my off hours.”

  “Oh? And when are those?”

  “The very few nights this week that you haven’t been able to join me. I have to do something to fill the time. Anything to keep my hands busy—besides the obvious.” I splashed him again, but this time we didn’t break our embrace. “What do you think the chances are I’ll find you under my covers tonight?”

  “I’m not sure how much longer we can go on like this.”

  Razar’s chest went tight under my arms, and I could feel his breath go shallow. “That’s not the answer I expected.”

  “I know it wasn’t.” Whether or not I could steal away wasn’t much of a question—it was child’s play, really. But, after a week of sneaking out of the infirmary at night, I was becoming more and more aware that we were living on borrowed time.

  “It’s getting late,” I said, easing up to give him a kiss.

  “Why not just come back with me?”

  “I should at least put in an appearance at the infirmary. If not, they may give the bed to someone else, and then where would we be?” As soon as I heard my own words, I regretted how hard they must have sounded. Sliding back over to him, I cupped his face so I could look him directly in the eyes.

  “This past week has been the best time of my life. It’s just that I don’t want it to end, I suppose.”

  “It doesn’t have to,” he said.

  “Eventually it will. My freedom has an expiration date, remember?” His brow furrowed, and I smoothed it with my fingers before scorching his lips with a deep kiss. “But let’s not think about that for now,” I said, putting on my wickedest smile. “Leave the door open for me?”

  “Depend on it.”

  I pulled myself out of the water and padded away, dripping. When I looked back, Razar was still sitting up to his chest in the pool, watching me go.

  The idea of going to the pool had been such a tempting one that I hadn’t considered what it would mean to run along the hallways back to the infirmary without a towel. The dark footprints on the floor behind me made me smile like I was getting away with something. Which I suppose I was.

  The lights were already out for the night, and I could see my bed empty and pristine in the pale glow coming in through the window. It looked lonely and comforting at the same time. An ugly crash in the hallway nearly made me jump out of my soaking skin.

  “Fucking damnit.”

  It was Varon. He had fallen down in the hallway, and I could hear him scrambling back to his feet. Before he could, I heard him thump down again. He must have been completely blasted.

  “Shit!”

  He was already at the door. There was no time to climb into my hospital gown, so I just clambered under the sheets in my damp bikini and prayed he would be too drunk to notice. There would be no explaining my way out of that one.

  The door swung open, and I could see his silhouette weaving against the light from the hallway.

  “Alicia?” An ugly singsong lilt in his voice made my skin crawl.

  “Hmm?” Doing my best to sound as if he had woken me, I stirred lazily under the sheets. “Varon, is that you?”

  “It is.” Something in the way he spoke was unreadable, and he let the door shut behind him as he came through the dark to stand by my bed. “Feeling any better tonight? Hmmm?”

  “Maybe a little,” I said as feebly as possible as his hand trailed its way up to my forehead.

  “You’re wet.”

  “Am I?”

  “Is this sweat? Is your fever that high?”

  “It must be. What else would it be?”

  He gave a small snort at that. My heart was racing so hard, I feared he would see it through the blanket. His thick fingers set about brushing my hair back from the beads of water on my brow.

  “I’ll send the doctor to get a look at you in the morning.”

  “He sees me every morning.”

  “Well, this time, I’ll send him special. You need to get well, Alicia.” That drunken hand was finding its way down across the blankets to grope at the curves of my body beneath. I did everything I could to lay still and hide my repulsion.

  “Thank you.”

  “Yes, we need you well,” he went on as if he hadn’t even heard me. “And, Alicia? I need you to start playing nice.” His hand landed firmly on my breast and squeezed. I ruthlessly tamped down my fury. “Because, if you don’t play nice, do you know what will happen?”

  “No.” Even in the dark, I could see him weaving. His boozy breath had an almost hypnotic quality to it, like one talking in a dream. I wondered if he would even remember any of this in the morning. He was drunk so often, it seemed a miracle he remembered anything.

  “Your parents.”

  My blood froze in place. “What about them?” I asked, trying to hide my fear.

  “I don’t know.” He gave an awkward shrug. “You may not want to believe it, but I’m very well connected. Not just money, Alicia—influence. Even on Earth. Does that surprise you?”

  I didn’t move. Hell, I couldn’t move.

  “Lots of connections in lots of places, my pet. Some even close to your parents. Poor Tom and Katie Harper. If you aren’t good to me, they’re likely to have a very bad time.” It was as clear a threat as I had ever heard, but his voice was so light. Almost like a lullaby, which made the whole thing so much fucking scarier.

  The bulk of his threat seemingly over, he released his grip on my tit and slouched down to sit on the bed.

  “I’m a string puller, do you know that, Alicia? Of course you don’t, not really. But when you actually start spending time with me, you’ll learn all about it. And you think I’m rich now? It’s not a patch on where I’m going.”

  “Is that a fact?” I had found my voice again.

  “Yes, it is. My companies are about to blow right up. Just explode. And do you know what’s going to come raining down? Money. More than you can even count. Sacks and sacks of Ripper money.”

  Ripper money? What the hell was he talking about? He’d been sounding crazier each time I’d seen him, but now he was on the verge of coming completely unhinged.

  “That’s who I was drinking to tonight, did you know that? Oh, not publicly. I could never toast them in public—at least not yet. But each time I raised my glass, I thought to myself, this one is for the Rippers. Good health to them.”

  Turning to face me, even in the dark I was afraid of the crazed glimmer in his eyes.

  “You going to give me a kiss goodnight?”

  “I don’t want to get you sick.”

  “Well, aren’t you considerate? Alright. Just a little one then.”

  Razar

  Energy charged my steps as I made my way down to the infirmary. It had been over a week since we had seen each other by the light of day. I had mentioned offhand to Varon that I was worried about Alicia in a guardian sort of way. He didn’t seem ruffled or bothered at all, so I figured I was in the clear for
a short visit. I used my free time to go down to the gardens and choose some flowers for Alicia to have in her room. I made sure to look up the name and origin and at least one fun detail about every single flower. I knew that she would ask. I loved that about her, how curious she is about everything.

  I reached her door and gave it a gentle knock.

  “Come in.” A sharp sound. I wondered if she thought I was Varon. I would be worried too, if Varon was coming to visit me midday. I’d be more worried if he came in the middle of the night.

  “It’s me,” I whispered as I opened the door slowly. Even though we weren’t hiding, I still felt the need to be secretive. That was the best way to let someone in on a secret, I knew, but I couldn’t help it. Alicia was like a secret treasure that had to be protected.

  “Oh, hello.”

  A chill fell between us. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. I pushed through it, knowing that Varon must have been with her recently. Of course his presence would spill over into mine. I cursed him for ruining the precious little time we had together, hoped the flowers would help ease her mind.

  “I bought these for you.” I held the flowers by her bedside. I could see her hair had dried in crinkly curls from the pool water last night. She looked so beautiful, just sitting there, even in a hospital gown.

  “You shouldn’t have,” she said sharply, even coldly. Expression tense, she continued, “What if Varon were to see?”

  She had a point, and I knew better, but I hadn’t been able to help myself, wanting to see a smile on her face.

  “Don’t worry, Alicia. You can just look at them and I’ll take them with me, throw them away somewhere. I’ll even put them back in the garden, in a vase. No one will notice.”

  She looked away. She was in pain, somehow. I didn’t know what to do. I felt so powerless, all of my strength felt like nothing at her pain. “I thought…I thought you might like to know what kind of flowers they are.”

  She looked up at me, then back at the flowers. The look in her eyes was so dark, like our light had been snuffed out. I was afraid to ask what had happened.

  Without looking back up at me, she pulled out the smallest and slenderest stalk. At the end was a white cup-shaped flower with small yellow pollen sacks in the center. “What kind is this?” she asked weakly.

  “That’s a garmelon. They’re native to the other side of the planet, we would have seen them growing naturally by the resort beach. They attract zips with their sweet scent. The zips carry a pollen sac on their backs and help the plants cross-pollinate.”

  She smelled the flower and looked away from me the whole time. It was like she was on another planet. Maybe Earth?

  “Look, Razar. We…we have had our fun, as I was saying last night.” She paused, as if she were about to cry. I braced. “I don’t want to see you anymore. Please go.”

  I ignored her words, and looked at her through the eyes of my experience, observed her body language, dissected her tone. I wanted answers, and yet could not demand them.

  I waited until I could speak in a gentle tone. Now I knew something was wrong, and fury rose in my throat. “Alicia? What are you saying?”

  “Please. Go.”

  Varon. He must have gotten to her somehow. My Alicia wasn’t a cold, fickle woman, and all the light had been snuffed out in her. If Varon had gotten to her, it meant he knew, something at least. I had to play the game for now.

  “Alright, Alicia. I’ll go. I have to get back to Varon, anyway.” I paused. “Have you spoken to him lately?”

  I watched her shoulder jerk before she controlled herself, but that was all I needed. I was already out of the room, but I lingered at the doorway, hoping she would say something more, give me another clue. I tamped down the urge to storm back in there and demand an explanation. I knew I couldn’t. Not just because it would be dangerous, but because I didn’t want her to see the murder in my eyes and think she’d caused it.

  I found a trash bin and stuffed the flowers as far down as I could. I made my way to the only place I knew I could keep my emotions inside and start formulating a strategy. The bar.

  There, I wouldn’t know anyone, and no one would bother the private guard to Varon. I sat down at the end of the bar and ordered whatever was on special, neat. Some pure liquor, the Jorkan equivalent of double-strength vodka. It was strong enough I had to take long sips. That way I wouldn’t be downing shots.

  I replayed the night in my head, trying to connect it to this afternoon, went through every move to figure out where I’d gone wrong. Or had I misjudged the situation and Alicia really was done with me? But no . . . there was no way to misjudge our intimacy. I had never felt the way I had with her. ‘We had our fun. I don’t want to see you.’ The words rang in my head as I ordered another drink. She’d sounded like a droid. She’d never sounded like that, not even sprawled on the floor the night Varon had tried to force himself on her. What did he have on her?

  I was pulled out of my stewing by a woman approaching me. She had delicate horns curling on her pale blue head, a female Jorkan. She was symmetrical, and trim, her breasts bobbing up and down purposefully. I had barely looked up at her when she tapped my knee with her tail. She was coming on to me. In another life, I would have thought she was beautiful.

  “Why, hello there. Can I buy you a drink?” She placed a hand on my arm. She was coming on so strong, I recoiled.

  “Can’t you see I already have one?”

  She was undeterred, giving my arm a squeeze. “You’ll need one for when I sit to chat with you. I can be a very chatty girl.”

  I didn’t have time for this. I just wanted to be alone with my drink. “Can you just leave the me fuck alone?” I hadn’t meant to curse her out, but I didn’t try to apologize. I stared down at my drink and waited for her to leave.

  She snatched back her arm and tail like I was on fire. I was on fire. I was a fire of emotions and I didn’t want anyone to be near me. What could Varon have done? Threaten her life? Mine? We’d already known to expect that. Then what?

  “No need to be so nasty!” She left in a huff, her slender tail swinging behind her.

  I just sipped my drink slowly. I wanted to get moving, spring into action, but impulsiveness would doom us both. No, I needed this time to calm my emotions and wrap myself in a cold, icy shroud of clear thinking. Maybe if my mind were clear, I could stop thinking about her, about the look in her eyes as she tried to say goodbye. I couldn’t be distracted if Varon was already two steps ahead of me. What was I missing? I needed to understand what had happened.

  I started to feel another presence growing behind me. Was she back for more? I had made myself crystal clear. I turned around, ready to really curse her out this time.

  Instead, there was Yilap, the man that had been put “in charge” of all the Earth/Jorkan proceedings. Some good lot of help he was. He had Alicia stuck in this mess with Varon, a man I hated more and more every day.

  “Razar,” he said cautiously.

  “Can’t you see I’m trying to be alone?”

  He eyed my slouched posture and my clear drink and gave a curt nod. “I can see something is bothering you. And you don’t bother very easily, do you?”

  “No, I don’t. So please, just leave me alone.” I thought for a moment, narrowing my eyes. “Have you talked to Alicia lately?” You never knew who was listening. I had to speak with caution.

  “I have something to show you concerning just that.”

  The way he said, I knew it was something big.

  Alicia

  My stomach was in knots. I knew sending Razar away would hurt, but nothing could have prepared me for how much. It was a deep, visceral kind of pain. Something akin to longing, but far more potent.

  Be strong, I told myself. It’s for his own good. For the good of both of us. It felt miserable to think about Razar and me as separate entities as opposed to ‘us,’ but there wasn’t any alternative that I could think of. There could never really be an ‘us.’
For better, or more certainly for worse, I was bound to belong to Varon. Sure, I was supposed to be able to decide in thirty days. That was a damn joke. I was never going to be able to make a decision on my own. I was stuck.

  After the previous night, I was completely trapped. After his drunken ramblings and the sickeningly overt threat to my parents, I was entirely out of options. The time for trying to figure a way out was over. I couldn’t put my parents’ lives on the line, not even for my own happiness. Not even for my own life—or Razar’s. And a small part of me wondered, if Varon knew about my parents, then how could he not know about Razar and me? The more I thought about it, the more I was certain Varon was playing more than one game with me.

  “Garmelon,” I whispered to myself, turning over the slender white flower in my hands. It was delicate to the point of fragility. Razar had looked so bright, so hopeful when he came in. My heart ached at the flowers he had brought, as if I had really been sick and in need of comfort. It was the perfect gesture, and would have melted my resolve if my heart was not already thoroughly broken.

  No doubt, Razar’s was too, now. I hadn’t even been able to bring myself to look at him, in an attempt to save us both the pain. I only heard the careful coolness of his voice, the barely contained anger. Almost absently, I raised the garmelon to my nose again and breathed in its delicate, almost citrus-like fragrance.

  “That’s pretty.” I jumped at the voice from the doorway. It was Varon, leaning against the frame, looking remarkably sober, for him.

  “Yes, it is.” My hands snapped the flower down into my lap, and I sorely wished that I hadn’t been caught with it. It was something I would’ve liked to have kept, but I turned and let it drop into the waste bin beside the bed.

  “Shame to throw that away,” he said. “Still, I suppose that’s just something they brought around to make all you patients feel better, is that it? Maybe the doctor I sent you this morning, even—what was his name?”